Wonder WHAT?

Some of my brony-related searches for humor information, mostly relating to copyright issues vis a vis fan parodies (YouTube's copyright protection software is somewhat trigger happy, even if Hasbro and/or the studios and cast have no issues with parodies that duly cite sources), led me to find something on YouTube...botched voice castings and translations for roles...sometimes giving male voices to female voice actors, or producing a translation that is often way too literal.  A Swedish translation of the name of Rainbow Dash's favorite flight demonstration group (the "Wonderbolts") led to the word "Underskruvarna..." which translates to "Wonderscrews."

An artist on DeviantArt "derped" the character of Soarin, and created a new cutie mark for him based on the Swedish translation.  Links follow:

Soarin the Wonderscrew
Wonderscrews source video

Well at least they were in the right section of the hardware store!  I mean if they missed the aisle, we could have had "Wonderkeys," "Wonderplanks," or "Wondersaws!"


Don't even get me started on "Wondernuts."


I'd tried running "Wonderbolts" through digital translators...most of the time you have to break up the words "wonder" and "bolt" (the software treats "wonderbolts" as untranslatable or a proper noun), but sometimes they turn out amusing results.  I used iTranslate, which tends to yield a lot of accuracy with Spanish, but like any digital system, it's only as good as the programming. 

Most of the time you end up with something that makes some sense (e.g., back and forth with romance languages like French or Spanish yields "Bolts of Wonder"), and some even produce near accurate translations (e.g. Hindi yields "Wonder bolt") but in some languages...



So, these all use "Wonder Bolts" as the input string, which is translated into a language, and then translated back into English.  The results are entered here verbatim, with my notes in parentheses.  Punctuation marks which appear are straight out of the result.  Results which return to the original string or a close approximation (i.e., "Wonder Bolt(s)" or "Bolt(s) of Wonder") are omitted.

Arabic: Nails Wonder  (Captain Spitfire opens a pedicure salon in the Middle East?  Well if it helps the peace talks...)

Belarussian: Interestingly, Balta  (Um...what about Balta?)

Bengali: Bolts surprise (A dessert for the iron deficient?  Pinkie Pie must be desperate for ideas...)

Bulgarian: No wonder the bolts

Catalan: It's no wonder the screws

Chinese: No wonder bolt (Great, they've restricted their airspace.  Someone tell Celestia.  And tell Spitfire the demo's cancelled.)

Czech: The miracle of screws  (The carpentry version of the birds and the bees?  "You see, when a screwdriver loves a two-by-four very very much...)

Danish: Weird bolts  (Sung by Oingo Boingo.)

Estonian: Interestingly, the bolts (Yes, what about the bolts?  Are you going to finish that sentence?)

Finnish, Russian: The miracle of bolts (Same as Czech, but with auto mechanics.  "You see, when a socket wrench loves an oil sump very very much...")

Georgian: Interestingly, bolts (Is it just me, or is Eastern Europe and the Russian Commonwealth getting cut off a lot in translation?)

German: Miracle Screws (Sounds something the late Billy Mays would sell.)

Greek, Latvian: Wonder Screws ('Nuff said.)

Hatian Creole: Is Vice (Yes, is very very vice.  Amazivgy vice, in fact.)

Hebrew: This Screws (Wow.  Creative.  I'd have thought "This Blows" and "This Sucks" would be enough.)

Hungarian: Wonder, screws (and sodium benzoate as a preservative)

Japanese: What bolt?  (Either they lost 'em, or they're preoccupied by Spikezilla.)

Kannada: Bolt wonder

Korean: The Wonder Vault  (So that's where Kim Jong-un keeps his MLP:FIM downloads...)

Latin: Wonder and bolts  (Name for a pegasus death metal band?)

Lithuanian: Interestingly Bolts

Macedonian: I Wonder Bolts (Philosophical, an Apple product, or a parody of an Issac Asimov novel?)

Norwegian, Swahili: Strange bolts (Yes, they sure are...)

Polish: Interestingly, Screws (...there goes the connection again.  They really need better internet among their mechanics.)

Portugese: Screws of wonder (Didn't they make an NC-17 rated version of Teddy Ruxpin?)

Romanian: Ask bolts (I think Japan needs to.  They still don't know Soarin is lost on the subway.)

Slovak, Slovenian: I wonder screws (The NC-17 version of Macedonia's attempt on the franchise.)

Swedish: Wonder Bolts (Seriously?!  iTranslate gets it right when an educated human can't?  I'm beginning to think Ikea had a hand in this...)

Tamil: Bolt unknown (Well that's why you have people at the hardware store who know these things.)

Thai: Bolts.  (Period.  End of discussion.)

Turkish: I wonder if the bolt (What?  You wonder if the bolt what?  Struck?  Loosened?)

Ukranian: Surprisingly, the bolts (You know what?  Forget it, we'll try again when Discord stops messing with the connection.)